If I would have known how easy and cheap it is to make your own marinara sauce in the crock pot, I would have started doing this years ago! Instead I’ve been spending money on expensive jars of Prego and other brands.

All I had to do was cook some onions and then dump all the ingredients into my slow cooker for a few hours. Not only did it make the house smell good but I ended up with 14 cups of red sauce that can be used for tons of recipes like our Baked Beef Ravioli, Meatball Subs, or Chicken Parmesan.

After letting the sauce cool and then chill in the fridge, I bagged up two cups per freezer bag and froze them for later use.

It was so easy!

*Research is telling us more and more that we should avoid canned tomatoes. Choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Bionaturae and Coluccio. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, like Trader Joe’s and Pomi.

Add the onion/garlic mixture and the rest of the ingredients into slow cooker (no smaller than 5-quart) and cook on low for at least 4 hours. Adjust seasonings to taste.

I store mine in mason jars and freeze them. Just make sure to leave room at the top for the sauce to expand when freezing!

Notes

Freezer Meal Instructions:To Freeze:Let sauce cool completely. Put cooled sauce in to mason jars (choose size depending on future needs for the sauce) being careful to leave room at the top for expansion. To Prepare:Leave mason jar in fridge for 24 hours to thaw. Use as needed.

Shawna, Rachel here. The same thought crossed my mind this week. I had a ton of tomatoes and made some homemade tomato sauce on the stove, but I think you could easily do it in the slow cooker instead. The key, though, is that you’ll need a food mill to remove the skins and seeds from your fresh tomatoes. Or, you can do what I did, and par-boil the tomatoes for about 1 minute, plunge them in an ice bath, and remove the skins. Then, you’ll need to squeeze out the seeds. (A food mill would be much easier!) I’m not sure how many tomatoes you’ll need to replace the canned tomatoes in this recipe, but I bet a quick google search would tell you. I hope that helps some!

I actually just out whole tomatoes from my garden, garlic, onions, parsley, basil in my vitamin and purée then cook. I add a little black pepper and some fresh peppers when have them also puréed. Then I put in crockpot to simmer. I add other herbs depending on what I have but rosemary and allspice can add a nice flavor as well :0). Wondering why everyone peels and de seeds the tomatoes…

Thanks for the recipe it looks delish. I have some fresh tomatoes I need to use up in the fridge. Thanks for the post on the ratio of fresh to canned tomatoes. My crock pot went out on me the other day. Do you think this recipe will be just as good if you do low and slow on the stove?

No, water bathing sauce isn’t enough to kill the bacteria. The acidity is too low for a water bath to be safe. Get to know your pressure cooker. It’s a life saver and really not that scary once you get used to it!

OMG! I tried this recipe this weekend (I actually split it in half for my needs) and it was beyond amazing!!! I was literally eating the sauce out of my crock pot with a spoon. The lack of sugar was not a problem for me as I am use to sugary store bought products. I cannot thank you enough for this recipe and I would highly recommend it!

I’ve been making this for several months now and really enjoy it. However this week I pulled a jar out of the freezer and it was cracked. I’m not sure what happened, any other ways to store it besides freezer bags or glass jars?

Was the jar a mason jar? They usually don’t crack (but I must admit, I had one crack on me the other day as well).
Have you ever thought about canning? I sometimes do that when I have a large batch of something.

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